


The Ascension

by WizzAirHungaryLtd



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29592273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WizzAirHungaryLtd/pseuds/WizzAirHungaryLtd
Summary: V stared blankly.So it’d all been……for nothing? She was dying. She was going to die, no matter what.“No. You’re not giving up now. Not when we’ve come this far. Nothing changes. You go back into the world. I fade away. That was always the plan.” Johnny looked at her intently from behind the chair.V’s eyes softened.“Johnny………..”Personally, I didn't feel that the conversation in Mikoshi felt like a satisfying good-bye between Johnny and V. This is my attempt at giving them that.
Relationships: Johnny Silverhand & V, Johnny Silverhand/V
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	The Ascension

V stared blankly.

So it’d all been……for nothing? She was dying. She was going to die, no matter what.  
“No. You’re not giving up now. Not when we’ve come this far. Nothing changes. You go back into the world. I fade away. That was always the plan.” Johnny looked at her intently from behind the chair.  
V’s eyes softened.  
“Johnny………..”  
“Don’t “Johnny” me! This is is how it’s gonna be.”  
V felt tears well in her eyes. It was all too much.  
“Johnny……..I…..I already died, when Dex put a bullet in my skull. You saved me.” _Oh, boy. Oh, no. Tears._ “………Now.…Now, I’m gonna repay you that favor.”  
“V……No. Don’t do this.” There was an intensity in his voice, almost pleading. As if to say _I don’t deserve that. I’m not worth it._  
“I don’t know if the things that happen to us happen for a reason. All the things I’ve seen, I have a hard time believing in a higher power. But meeting you….the things we’ve seen together, what we’ve gone through…..what we share. I don’t know if it was for better or worse…but you changed me, Johnny.”  
“We changed each other.” He conceded.  
V smiled, shaking with a quiet, melancholic chuckle. A tear threatens to roll down her cheek. _Oh, shit._  
“But why? Six months is a long time. You could do so much. You could say goodbye. Be with the people you love. I can’t take that from you. I….I don’t have anyone left. They’ve all moved on. Maybe…..It’s better to…”  
“Let me help.” She said simply. “Please. Let me help you have a second chance at life. A new life.”  
“Wearing your skin as a fucking suit? No way!” It was as if that just occurred to him. He looked angry. Hurt. Confused.  
“What else are we gonna do?! The body basically belongs to you now. Said it yourself, it doesn’t listen to me anymore!”  
“So, what?! ’m gonna walk around for the rest of my life having to look at your face every time I pass a mirror?!” _But never see you again?!_  
“Please….please!” She sighed like someone who’d lived for a thousand years. “Johnny. What I told you at the Pistis Sophia – I meant it. I’ll go. You stay.”  
“The fuck you are!”  
She stood up. Wiped tears from her eyes. Johnny’s eyes softened. Hadn’t he noticed? He suddenly looked uncertain. Uncomfortable.  
“V…” He reached out for her instinctively. Hesitated.  
They’d never shared much physical contact before. Well, except the first time they met. When Johnny beat the living shit out of her. Standing in front of him now, dreading with everything in her being to let him go, it seemed like such a distant memory. She wanted to reach out and touch him. But, like him, she sensed it was a dangerous barrier to cross.  
No time. There had never been enough time.  
She turned towards the light. _Don’t look back. You can’t look back.  
Don’t look back. Don’t look back. Don’t look back._  
As she walked, a sob built in her chest like a helium balloon. Her face felt hot. _Red and raw_ , she thought. Why was this so hard? Was it that she was afraid? A little. For so long, she’d lived with the hope that it would all somehow work out. That she’d have her life back. That she’d live again. Now, as it was all crashing down around her, how could she be expected to just let it all go so quickly? But six months was no life. Johnny could _live_. He could live a whole life. She wanted that for him. She wanted to give him that.  
The pillar of light looked almost inviting.  
Johnny glitched into view right in front of her.  
“What, a little guilt creeps in and that’s that? You give up?”  
“Stop.” She could see what he was doing. He was goading her. The last resort of a desperate man. _Why? Why not say a gracious “thank you” and leave it at that? He always has to make himself so difficult to be nice to._ “Just stop.”  
She walked past him.  
He didn’t let her get far. Yanked her around by the shoulder to face him.  
“Gonna just roll over instead of fightin’ for what’s yours? Decomish yourself ‘cause you’re too fuckin’ scared to say goodbye?”  
She was not taking the bait. “I don’t need to say goodbye. I’ve spent my life showing the people I love what they mean to me.  
At least I hope they see it when I show it to them.” She looked him right in the eyes. His aviators were off. It felt strange - looking him in the eyes like that. Intimate.  
“V…..” He said softly. It sounded like a warning.  
She opened her mouth to say something. Stopped herself. No.  
No. Better not. Too late. Too bad. There’s nothing left to say now.  
“I’m tired.” She finally said. “I just wanna start anew, even if I don’t know what that means. I bet it’d be good for you, too.”  
“V……I’m just……” He’s rubbing his shoulder nervously. Averting his eyes. He says nothing for a moment. Thinking. He seems to deflate. Give up. Give in.  
“It was for the better.”  
“Huh?” Now, she’s not following.  
“You changed me for the better. I hope you know that.” _Even if you’ll never know all the other things I wish I’d said,_ he thought.  
She smiled. Tears falling down her cheeks. Fuck it. If this wasn’t worth crying over, what was? She nodded. “You, too.”  
She held out her hand to him.  
He clasped it, as she had done just before they set off on that harebrained, half-baked suicide mission. As he had done when she collapsed on the sidewalk of the Sunset Motel. “You ain’t dyin’ yet. I got you.” he’d said. _I got you this time, Johnny,_ she thought.  
His hand in hers, she wanted so desperately to pull him to her, bury her face in his neck and hug him closer than she’d ever hugged anyone before. But, if she did that, she’d never have the strength to let go. Standing there, their minds separated, holding on to each other’s hands like a lifeline, V suddenly felt small and empty. Like something was missing from her. Clasping his hand like this was all at once the most intimate touch they’d ever shared and impossibly inadequate.  
Stop.  
It was time. V felt that with every passing second it became harder to turn around. She tried to pull away from him. He held her in place.  
She met his eyes. Felt his hand press firmly against hers. He looked so sad.  
Standing there, neither of them said it in so many words, but they both knew. When she saw it in his eyes, it was like he knew she’d seen it. Like she’d found him out. He looked down. Looked up again.  
Her eyes softened, then, as if to say _let me go_. He faltered. Looked down. Let his hand slip out of hers and fall to his side. She felt colder than she could ever remember feeling.  
_Good-bye, Johnny._  
She couldn’t say it. She didn’t want to. It wasn’t good-bye. He would see her every time he looked in the mirror. She would meld into a higher consciousness and his memory would slip away.  
“Will you remember me?” Were the words she heard come out of her mouth. Voice thick with tears.  
He smiled, almost playfully. “I can’t help it.”  
He looked away, the smile fading from his lips. She turned around.  
The light engulfed her.


End file.
